Quote

Productive work, love and thought are possible only if a person can be, when necessary, quiet and alone. To be able to listen to oneself is the necessary condition for relating oneself to others.

Erich Fromm

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Erich Fromm
Age: 79 †
Born: 1900
Born: March 23
Died: 1980
Died: March 18
Philosopher
Psychoanalyst
Psychologist
Sociologist
University Teacher
Writer
Frankfurt/Main
Love
Possible
Productive
Peace
Condition
Others
Oneself
Thought
Necessary
Persons
Quiet
Able
Listen
Person
Conditions
Work
Alone
Relating

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Man may be defined as the animal that can say ''I,'' that can be aware of himself as a separate entity.
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Having lost religious faith and the humanistic values bound up with it, he [man] concentrated on technical and material values and lost the capacity for deep emotional experiences, for the joy and sadness that accompany them.
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When an individual is awake, almost all he does and says is inspired by the model of behavior that the society imposes,even without his being aware of it.
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Once they are through the process of education, most people lose the capacity of wondering, of being surprised. They feel they ought to know everything, and hence that it is a sign of ignorance to be surprised or puzzled by anything.
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If I am attached to another person because I cannot stand on my own two feet, he or she may be a life saver, but the relationship is not one of love.
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Education is helping the child realise his potentialities.
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I love in you everybody, I love through you the world, I love in you also myself.
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Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.
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The lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness.
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The existential split in man would be unbearable could he not establish a sense of unity within himself and with the natural and human world outside.
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Exploitation and manipulation produce boredom and triviality they cripple man, and all factors that make man into a psychic cripple turn him also into a sadist or a destroyer.
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Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
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Optimism is an alienated form of faith, pessimism an alienated form of despair.
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I think if you ask people what their concept of heaven is, they would say, if they are honest, that it is a big department store, with new things every week - all the money to buy them, and maybe a little more than the neighbours.
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Modern man is alienated from himself, from his fellow men, and from nature. He has been transformed into a commodity, experiences his life forces as an investment which must bring him the maximum profit obtainable under existing market conditions.
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We've wanted to produce more in the 19th century and the 20th century in order to give man the possibility for more dignified human life but actually what has happened is that production and consumption have become means - have ceased to be means and have become ends, and we are production crazy and consumption crazy.
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In fact, there are very important writings of Marx which are not even translated into English.
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Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before.
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